The Land Due Diligence Checklist I Use on Every Parcel

Land doesn’t have a roof to inspect. That fools people.

With a house, you can walk in and see the water stain on the ceiling. With land, the problems are underground, on paper at the county office, or a quarter mile away at the end of a power line that doesn’t reach.

So here’s the land due diligence checklist I use, in the order I work it. The order matters — the earliest items are the ones most likely to kill a deal, and you want to find out cheaply before you spend on the rest.

Before anything: write the contract with room to check

Your purchase contract should give you a due diligence period and make closing contingent on satisfactory results — at minimum soil/septic suitability, survey, title and zoning. Have a closing attorney draft or review it. In South Carolina, closings are attorney-supervised, so you’ll have one involved anyway — here’s how I’d pick a real estate closing attorney in SC.

Then work the list.

1. Access

Question: Can you legally get to the parcel from a public road?

• Road frontage on a public, maintained road is the cleanest.
• Private road? Find out who maintains it and whether there’s a recorded road maintenance agreement.
• No frontage? You need a recorded, deeded easement that runs with the land. A neighbor’s verbal permission is not access.
• Practical access: can a car, a well-drilling rig, a septic truck, and a home delivery truck actually get in?

Landlocked parcels can sometimes be fixed. Usually slowly and at cost. Treat them as a different, harder business.

2. Utilities

Question: What will it take to get power, water and sewer to a homesite?

• Power: Is service at the road? How far to the nearest pole? Call the utility and ask what’s required to extend service.
• Water: Public water at the road? If not, are wells common nearby and what does it take to permit one?
• Sewer: Public sewer is rare on rural parcels. If there’s none, everything depends on step 3.

Distance is expense. A parcel that looks cheap can become expensive fast if utilities are far off.

3. Septic and perc

Question: Will the soil support a septic system, and what kind?

This is the one I check earliest and care about most.

A soil evaluation (often called a perc test, though the process is usually broader) tells you whether the ground can absorb and treat wastewater, and what type of system can be permitted. The outcomes are roughly:

• Conventional system approved. Good. Note where the system and its repair area must go.
• Engineered or alternative system required. Higher design and install cost, possibly more maintenance. This can kill a deal — especially a land and mobile home package, where the margin can’t absorb it.
• Not suitable. Without sewer, a parcel that can’t support septic may not be buildable for a home.

High water tables, heavy clay, rock and slopes are common culprits. Rules and who runs evaluations differ by state and county — call the local environmental or health office and ask how it works there.

4. Flood zone

Question: Is any part of the parcel in a mapped flood zone?

• Check the official FEMA flood maps for the parcel.
• Partially in a flood zone? Figure out whether there’s still a good homesite outside it.
• Mostly in one? Building may be restricted, expensive to insure, or unappealing to buyers.
• Look for wetlands too. Low ground, standing water and certain vegetation are clues. Wetlands carry their own restrictions.

Walk the property after a heavy rain if you can. You’ll learn more in ten minutes than from any map.

5. Zoning and restrictions

Question: What can actually be built or placed here?

• Zoning: Call county planning and zoning. Ask what’s allowed — single-family, manufactured homes, agricultural uses — and minimum lot sizes, frontage and setbacks.
• Manufactured homes: Some zones and some communities prohibit or restrict them by age or size.
• Deed restrictions and covenants: Read the deed and any recorded restrictions. HOAs exist in rural areas too.
• Subdividing: If you plan to split the parcel, ask what the county requires for road frontage, lot size and approval.

Get answers in writing when you can.

6. Survey

Question: Where are the lines, really, and what’s on them?

A current boundary survey by a licensed surveyor shows acreage, corners, easements, encroachments, and road frontage. It often reveals:

• Acreage that doesn’t match the tax record
• A neighbor’s fence, shed or driveway on your parcel (or yours on theirs)
• Easements for power lines, pipelines or access that limit where you can build
• Missing or disturbed corner pins

Tax maps are useful for scouting. They are not surveys.

7. Title

Question: Can the seller deliver clean, insurable title?

• Full title search through your closing attorney
• Liens, judgments, unpaid taxes
• Heirs’ property — land passed down without probate, where multiple heirs may hold interests. Common in rural areas and a real complication.
• Easements and rights-of-way of record
• Title insurance at closing

If an heir didn’t sign, you don’t own what you think you own.

The whole list, in one place

After the checklist: the numbers

Once a parcel passes, underwrite it like any other deal. What do similar buildable parcels nearby actually sell for? What will it cost to hold and prepare? Who buys it, and how will they pay? I teach that sequence in how to analyze a real estate deal, and a lot of these deal-killers overlap with the red flags I watch for on houses.

Want the full playbook — scripts, checklists, the one-page analyzer? It’s free at benlovro.com. And for the bigger picture on why I’m buying more land, start at the land investing overview.